


The Fire Dragon's Warning

by MiladyDragon



Series: Dragon-Verse Series One [16]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon-Verse, Dragons, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-28
Updated: 2012-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-08 19:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/446531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiladyDragon/pseuds/MiladyDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toshiko receives a late-night visitor, with a vague warning of things to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fire Dragon's Warning

 

_**15 January 2008** _

_**  
** _

Toshiko entered her flat, tossing her bag and laptop case down onto the sofa, and toeing her shoes off as she headed toward her kitchen. She was shattered, but wired at the same time. A Rift flare had sent the team out to Butetown, to a debris trail that had taken them hours to clean up. Luckily nothing alive had been within whatever it was; it would have been a terrible way to die.

And it had just been the three of them; Owen hadn't answered his mobile, and Jack was incensed. Owen had been cleared for duty just that morning, too, so there had been no reason for him to ignore the call. When she'd left the Hub, Ianto had been arguing with him, in a failed attempt to calm their captain down before he went out to confront their medic. With Gwen having been suspended indefinitely, the clean-up had been almost too much for them.

She sighed. Certainly, they'd all lost people, but Owen was acting like this was the first time it had ever happened to him. Diane had left of her own accord, not wanting to be tied down when a whole new world lay before her, and Toshiko couldn't blame her in the slightest. However Owen was being way too melodramatic for having only known her barely a week, and it was putting too much stress on an already stretched-to-the-limit team.

Pottering around her kitchen as she prepared a cup of tea and some toast, Toshiko couldn't escape the feeling there was something going on behind the scenes. The way Owen was acting…Gwen actually Retconning her own boyfriend due to the need to confess…these weren't the signs of rational thinking. Toshiko thought very rationally, and she could see that Owen's behavior was out of character. Gwen, she wasn't certain about, not really knowing her all that well, but after what had happened with Suzie's strange plot had she truly thought she could get away with taking the Retcon?

After Jack and Ianto, Toshiko was the longest serving member of Torchwood Three. She'd seen so many bizarre things in her time, that it had her instincts tingling. There really wasn't anything she could pin down, and without any proof she couldn't bring it to her bosses.

So lost in her thoughts Toshiko didn't notice her flat getting warmer until she had her tea and toast and was heading back into her lounge.

When she did feel how uncomfortable it was getting, she made a detour to the thermostat on her wall. The furnace was on, but she always turned it down low when she left for the Hub, since it didn't make sense to heat an empty flat. Holding her piece of toast between her teeth, she reached out, thinking she'd forgotten to do just that before she'd gone in…

Only the thermostat was where she normally set it in the morning.

Frowning around her toast, Toshiko mentally cursed. This was all she needed…to have her heater burn out or something. Maybe she could get Ianto in to look at it; the dragon knew his way around such things, from his time running the inn. Maybe he could figure it out before the thing went balls' up… Toshiko might know computers and alien tech, but sometimes it was the ordinary things that stumped her.

She programmed it down a bit further, hoping to cut the strain on the unit, then headed toward her sofa, and that was when she noticed the fire in her lounge.

Torchwood trained reflexes came to the fore, and Toshiko darted into the kitchen, looking for her extinguisher. In her haste she still managed to set her teacup down on the countertop as she reached underneath for the small extinguisher she kept on hand. She headed quickly back into the lounge, aiming the nozzle toward the flame...

" _Please do not use that on me,"_ a laughing female voice exclaimed. _"I mean no harm."_

Toshiko gaped. The flame wasn't actually burning anything, even though she could feel the heat of it against her skin. It hovered off the floor, twisting and serpentine, one part of it leaning toward her. She only noticed the eyes because they were more red than orange.

Wings unfurled from the flame-form.

Sighing, Toshiko put the extinguisher down. "Sorry about that," she said. "I wasn't expecting the Fire Dragon to show up in my flat tonight."

" _I should think not!"_ the dragon answered. _"Although I do apologize for my somewhat…dramatic appearance. My brother, the Earth Dragon, would have come to you himself, but as I was already manifesting on this plane it was decided I would speak to you."_

"It's fine. Just be glad that Ianto told me about all four Great Dragons, or else I would have used the suppressant on you anyway." She set the canister down, and pushed her belongings aside so she could collapse onto the sofa. This would also explain why it was so hot in the flat. "Can I ask why you're here? I mean, I thought you couldn't appear without those posts…"

" _That was the case before you took the Earth Dragon's mark. We may now use that as a concentration object, although the power to do so is incredible. We would only use it in case of emergency."_

Toshiko sat up, suddenly afraid. "What is it?"

The Fire Dragon writhed in place. _"I know not what the young one has told you of us…"_

"I know that you're one of the Great Dragons; that you have vast powers over the elements of this world," she answered. "I also heard the invocation Ianto made."

The dragon's fiery head bobbed once. _"I am the Fire Dragon…although that's obvious."_ She laughed, then turned solemn once more. _"I have the honor of keeping the soul of this world burning brightly. But, I and my siblings also exist outside of Time itself, much like the Fae do."_

Toshiko couldn't help but shiver slightly at the mention of the fairies.

The dragon must have noticed, because she said, _"You would do well to fear them, for they are capricious, only held in check by the Pacts they've made. However, they are not important; what is, is that we have seen something that we must warn you about. Great evil is coming, dragon-friend, and you must be wary of it."_

"Why are you telling me this? Why not Ianto, or Jack?"

" _Because they are in the middle of it all."_ The dragon thrashed agitatedly. _"Has either of them told you of the Tarot girl?"_

Toshiko frowned. "No, I'm sure I would've remembered something like that."

" _There are many ancient powers in the Universe, and she is one of them. There are legends about her, and just what she is, but they are all wrong. She is nearly as capricious as the Fae, a trickster of sorts; reading a being's future and then making such readings seem unbreakable, although there are ways to do so if someone knows how."_

A bead of sweat dripped into Toshiko's eye, and she scrubbed it away roughly. "Are you saying she's done a reading for Ianto?" Something they'd once said was niggling at the back of her mind…

" _And for his mate. Those given to Jack Harkness are not what we need to discuss, at least not yet; although the time is coming when that prophecy will also lead to great evil, and you and the other dragon-friends will be summoned to the aid of the sanctuary. No, it is the one that our young one heard, not long after coming to this place."_

"What was it?" Toshiko wasn't sure she believed in prophecy, but then she hadn't believed in ancient dragon spirits until not that long ago. She also wanted to know more about these other dragon-friends, but thought that could wait.

" _She foretold that the young one would have his heart broken four times, by his mate. But, afterward, they would come to an understanding. She made it sound like a foregone conclusion, but that is her power: to make the one she prophesies to believe what she is saying."_

Toshiko shook her head. "Jack would never do that to Ianto. He loves him!" That was it…back when Jack had had his dream, and they'd asked her to help them figure out what was going on. It had sounded like a riddle at the time, but what the Fire Dragon was saying, was putting that odd conversation in perspective.

" _It has already happened twice: once with the hiring of Gwen Cooper, whom he thought was taking his place; and the other, were the events leading up to the death of the damaged one; the one who called herself Lisa."_

That made sense. Toshiko nodded, remembering how Ianto had reacted to Gwen being brought in, and how much trust he'd lost in Jack before it had been revealed that he'd been caring for the black dragon. Lisa's death – even though he'd had to do it himself – had been the only possible outcome to all that distrust and anger, and he could so easily have blamed Jack for that as well if he'd loved their captain any less. "So you're saying it's supposed to happen twice more? I still say Jack would never hurt Ianto, not deliberately."

" _I would agree with you. But something is coming, Toshiko Sato, dragon-friend, and it will facilitate the last of the prophecy. Already it is working within your team, your family, and it will culminate in disaster if we cannot stop it."_

Toshiko considered the dragon's words. Yes, she could see it; the team was more divisive than it had ever been in the time she'd been in it, what with Gwen's attitude and Owen's current behavior. Jack and Ianto seemed to be solid, but if there was any doubt in Ianto's mind that Jack loved him…the team could easily splinter apart under the right circumstances. "What is it?" she asked, ready to do what she needed to protect her family.

" _Unfortunately, we cannot be certain. It is so much simpler to see into the past than it is the future; moments traveling from this one become more and more fluid the farther we get away. But something is working to come between our sons, and your teammates. If it does, then there will be much death and destruction. Be alert, dragon-friend. Watch for anything that might seem out of character for those around you. It may be the only warning you have."_

"I will." Toshiko wished there was more information to go by, but she would do the best she could.

" _I do not know when we can next appear to you, and our powers in the world cannot help you in this. I wish we could, but we have been diminished. We can no longer affect the physical plane as we once did. If we could, we would fight this battle for you. But it is up to you and our two sons and your team. Beware, Toshiko. If this cannot be stopped…"_

She shivered, despite the heat the dragon was throwing off. "Yeah, I get the idea," she snorted. "I've been in Torchwood long enough to know Armageddon when I see it."

The Fire Dragon laughed. _"I imagine you do."_ Her form began to waver. _"I must go. The power keeping me physical is waning. Know that we trust you, Toshiko. You are a true dragon-friend."_

With those parting words, the Fire Dragon vanished in a flash, leaving Toshiko in a flat that was far too warm for comfort, and fear nibbling at her heart.

She would keep an eye out.

She would be ready.

And she had a phone call to make.


End file.
